Training

Many job opportunities favour candidates that have got experience in that field or within one that is very similar.

Some courses within the medical industry will ask that you have some sort of experience before you start. This may be the case for nurses, midwives or doctors, but how are you able to get experience? Often no one will give you work if you don’t have experience but without a job you have no way of gaining the experience you need – this can leave you in a very difficult situation.  

If you need to gain experience but cannot get a job that fits in with your learning then you may need to take time out of education and find work for 6 months to a year. If the issue is that no one will offer you the work without experience or qualifications then you may need to look in to doing volunteering work in a similar industry. It may be that you can help out in a hospital or a hospice or even a care home for a few months to get some experience to take you forward.

When looking for voluntary work in the medical industry you may find there are very few jobs you can do often due to patient confidentiality and patient care. Asking the advice of a careers advisors is always a good place to start if you find that you are coming up against barriers.

So many of us have had our jobs disrupted over the past 12 months. For some, not only have they suffered disruption but they may of even found themselves without a job following on from cut backs due to the lockdown restrictions. IF you have been lucky enough to keep your job, you may of missed out on a year of experience and possibly training, especially if you have only recently started the job. Often the first few years of a new job are spent gaining experience and knowledge about the role and the business. If you only recently started the job lats year, you may of found it difficult to receive any training as the business you work for may have had to shut or you may have had to work from home. Some companies were still able to offer training remotely but often the companies had so much work on trying to adapt to allow them to continue to trade during these times that training was put on hold. If you were due a pay rise during this time that may also of been put on hold. Many companies have not been able to complete the annual reviews that they normally do which means you may of missed out on the opportunity to ask for a pay rise or to discuss one that was in the pipeline. As the UK slowly starts to come out of lockdown and restrictions start to ease, more and more businesses can get back to some sort of normality. Some office workers are being asked to return to their desks and those who have been furloughed, may start to work some shifts again.

IT is likely as this starts to happen that training will resume although it may be slightly different to what you were expecting. Covid has certainly delayed many things for people but that doesn’t mean to say they won’t happen; it just may be a little further along than you had first thought. If you are a teacher then you may have missed out on some of your placement time. This will hopefully be fitted in during the next few months as schools run at full capacity again. If you are worried that you are not able to do your job correctly because of lack of training then it is important that you flag this as soon as possible with your manage as they will then be able to see what they can offer you to help.

If you need to undertake training or get a specific qualification to apply for a job then you need to find out how much it is going to cost and how long it is likely to take you. If you are looking at going to college, uni, or attend an online training course you may have to fork out for tuition fees. These fees can range from a few hundred pounds upwards of a few thousand pounds, and this money can be hard for people to find. It may be that the course is full time and you are not able to work at the same time, making money very tight. This is something that needs to be taken in to account. If once you have qualified you are able to get a much better paid job then it may be worth struggling through the time when you are training as in the long run you should be able to quickly recoup the money you lost.

You may be eligible to get help towards fees for training and could speak to your local job centre to see what they can offer. The other way round this is to find a job that offers training such as an apprenticeship. You may be on a relatively low wage whilst you are training but once you have qualified you can expect a rise.

Many parents worry about their child’s progress at school and feel unable to support them educationally. These parents will often seek the help of a private tutor to provide extra lessons for their child.

If you are thinking of starting up a tutoring business and have relevant qualifications and experience there are a few things to consider.

Are you going to offer subject specific tutoring or general support? It is advisable if at all possible to have contact with the school and discuss, with the parents’ consent any areas that the child is struggling with.

Resources that are used need to be good quality and up to date with current teaching methods. The internet is a valuable tool in this respect as there is a wealth of material available to download.

Lessons will need to be planned carefully taking into consideration the age of the child, level that they are working at and timing. The younger the child the more varied activities will need to be as attention span in younger children will be shorter.

Children respond well to a reward system so this can be built into the lessons as a regular feature and provide an opportunity to celebrate success.

If you did well at school and got your GCSE’s but didn’t go on to college or university then you may wonder if it is possible for you to do this at a later time. As we get older we often have more commitments such as rent or mortgage, running a car and possibly children. This will mean that we have to rely on our income even more so that we may have done when we were younger. For many people, this stops them going back into education as they feel they cannot afford to not be working full time. This may be the case, but there are options which you may want to consider which will allow you to do both.
Often if you have good GCSE’s you can get straight on to a degree level course without having to do A levels or obtain an NVQ first. You may wish to do an access course for a year which gets you back into learning and can help to teach you about writing assessments etc.
The Open University allows you to complete your learning from home and can be done full time or part time allowing you to still work. If you have a job that is flexible you may not have to cut down your working hours too much as long as you can commit your spare time to your degree.

There has recently been a study into the effect that music has on children’s education and many of the results indicate that children who are involved in musical activity from a very early age tend to achieve higher academic results that children who are not.

The study showed that in particular children who learn to play an instrument from the age of 4 tend to pick up the skill much quicker than an adult learning the same instrument. The thinking behind the higher academic achievements is that children who learn to play music before they start school are already use to the idea of study and practise and are stimulating their minds by learning a new skill.

Music also has a great effect on the mental wellbeing of the child and can be a great way of them working through their ever developing feelings. There have also been studies into the benefit music has on children with learning difficulties, and children who have speech impediments are often encouraged to listen to music whilst they practise talking as it’s proven to reduce anxiety and lessen stammering.

So give your child a good start with their education and encourage them to take an interest in music from an early age.

Many businesses are now looking to hire apprentices to help grow their business. The government has given businesses a number of incentives to hire apprentices to help with the shortfall of jobs and to allow businesses to start to build again following the recession.

Many employers have stated that taking on apprentices has allowed them to grow their own talent. They get to teach people how they want the job to be done and how their company works. As the apprentice becomes more qualified they are able to move up within the company and take on more responsibility.

Often there is an employment gap within a certain industry, taking on apprentices and training them in these areas will allow this gap to be filled. Many apprentices bring with them barrels full of enthusiasm and are very willing to learn.

It often allows a business to take on additional staff without having to fork out on a full salary straight away, which previously prevented a business from growing.

There are many ways in which to get involved in an apprentice scheme and your local job centre will be able to advise you of places within your area.

If you are looking to enter in to a new career then you may have to undergo additional training or even obtain a new qualification. There are many reasons that people want to move careers, it may be that you are looking for a job with more opportunities to progress, higher salaries, more rewarding or that you have to move for personal reasons. Whatever the reason is for moving, it is worth spending a bit of time researching what is going to be required in order for you to be at the level you need to be at to get a job.

It may be that you have all the relevant qualification but you need experience. If this is the case you may have to do some voluntary work to gain this experience. Or you may be willing to go in at a lower level and train on the job.

Whilst being employed, you may have the opportunity to undertake on the job training. This can help you learn how to improve in your current role, teach you new skills to take on additional responsibilities or help you manage other members of staff. Management courses are very popular and many employers send their employees on these types of course if they have given them a role than requires them to take responsibility for other members of staff.

Usually you will not have to pay for on the job training as it will either be in house or your employer will cover the cost. Any training is always a good idea and will improve your productivity in a current job but can also look great on a CV should there come a time when you wish to leave.

If you feel you would benefit from going on a course, then you could speak to your employer and see if they would be willing to send you on one.

If you feel that you’re bored at work and stuck in a bit of a rut it may be time for a change, not necessarily a change of company but a change of role within your company.

Most good companies will want to retain their staff therefore they will realise that it’s important that their staff have routes available for progression.

The first thing to do if your unhappy in your current role is to have a discussion with your manager, state that you’re happy within the company but would like a more challenging role and would like to know the progression routes for working towards this new role.

Your manager should then help you to come up with a PDP personal development plan where you will discuss any additional training and qualifications that you will need to progress within the company.

Once an agreed PDP is in place then it will be up to you to keep on top of your progression but with a bit of hard work you should be able to move into your ideal role.